


Where We Step When The Lights Go Out

by Krasimer



Series: I Always Swore I Was Going To Marry Him Someday [4]
Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: BAMF Lisa, Even if Sal is only hers by his relationship with Larry, Gen, Her father being Latino, Hers now, Larry is protective, Larry panics over Sal not answering the walkie-talkie, Latinx Characters, Lisa stays calm and makes them all drinking chocolate., Lisa will protect her children, Lisa's mother being Mexican, M/M, Maybe? I headcanon Lisa and Larry as Latinx and/or Mexican, Mexican Character, Mother-Son Relationship, Nightmares, Protective Mom, Sal has nightmares, Sal panics over his nightmares, small boyfriend is small
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 10:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11780886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: Instantly feeling more awake, Lisa pulled the door open completely. “Hey Sal,” she said quietly. He looked seconds from running away, his hair down and one of his hands over his face. In the other hand was the walkie-talkie-twin of the set she had bought Larry for his birthday, to replace the old ones. Her son’s voice was echoing out of it, tinny and panicked.“Hi,” Sal’s voice was somewhat muffled as he grabbed more of his hair and pressed it against his face.It hit her, right then, that she couldn’t see the straps of Sal’s prosthetic.





	Where We Step When The Lights Go Out

Three in the morning.

Lisa woke up to knocking on the door, pushing herself out of bed. She swallowed a couple of times, brushing her hair back from her face. The only downside to being the handyman of the Addison Apartments was that sometimes emergencies happened. She smacked her lips, yawning widely as she stood up and grabbed her sweatpants from the chair next to the bed. With quick-but-clumsy movements, she pulled them on and left her room.

She made a face when she heard her son in his room, talking.

Oh well, it was summer break. The kid would have plenty of time to fix his sleep schedule later. She yawned again, feeling her jaw pop as she made it to the door and opened it a crack, looking out cautiously.

On the other side of the door was Sal.

Instantly feeling more awake, Lisa pulled the door open completely. “Hey Sal,” she said quietly. He looked seconds from running away, his hair down and one of his hands over his face. In the other hand was the walkie-talkie-twin of the set she had bought Larry for his birthday, to replace the old ones. Her son’s voice was echoing out of it, tinny and panicked.

“Hi,” Sal’s voice was somewhat muffled as he grabbed more of his hair and pressed it against his face.

It hit her, right then, that she couldn’t see the straps of Sal’s prosthetic.

“Here, come on in, kid,” she moved to the side, a gentle guiding hand on the sharp peak of Sal’s shoulder. He was trembling under her fingers, his pajamas hanging off of him like billowing curtains. He just looked so small. “One second,” she moved to close the door behind him, then turned back to Sal. His hair was pulled tight against the back of his neck, his free hand clutching the strands against his face so tightly his knuckles were white. “Here,” she muttered again, her half-asleep brain racing to keep up. “Here, here,” she moved around him, refusing to acknowledge the curiosity she felt about what his face looked like. She could still hear her son’s voice coming from the walkie-talkie.

She curled a now-trembling hand of her own into a fist and rapped at Larry’s door. “Larry, Honey, come out here!”

The door swung open so fast that she startled and Larry came rushing out, one shoe on and the other in his hand as he hopped on one foot, trying to get it on. “Mom, I have to go check on Sal, he had a ni-“

“He’s here, kid,” she held up her hands, trying to get him to breathe.

“…What?”

“He’s already here,” she gestured to where Sal stood, still shivering. “How about you get him into your room and sitting down? It might make him feel better. I’ll get some stuff going, make us all a late-night treat.” She turned around, her eyes focusing on the ceiling as Larry took three steps to make it over to Sal, as if making his steps bigger could get him there faster. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Larry getting Sal to let go of his hair, the smaller boy’s back to her, and guiding him into her son’s room.

Lisa headed to the kitchen, humming quietly, mostly to herself, as she pulled out a small pan and the jug of milk from the fridge. She still remembered the recipe her grandmother had taught her, brought from Mexico when Lisa’s grandparents had immigrated. She measured out the chocolate, the spices, letting the milk heat slowly while she grabbed three mugs from the cupboard.

The apartment had gone sort of quiet behind her, which probably meant that Larry had gotten his freaked-out boyfriend into his room.

Taking a deep breath, Lisa whisked the chocolate into the milk, then added the cayenne and the cinnamon. Small pinch of cayenne, just enough to make it bite, cinnamon to add flavor. It had been made for her as many times as she had cried as a child. She hoped it would help her boys now.

When it was finished, she poured it carefully into the three mugs, picking up two of them and heading to the door of Larry’s room. Once there, she knocked gently with the outer-edge of the mug rim, waiting patiently. Larry opened the door again, much calmer this time, and grinned when he saw the mugs she held. “Thanks, mom,” he said quietly, accepting them both from her. He leaned around the door, keeping it as shut as he could, and set them on the desk.

She caught a brief glance of Sal on his bed, his face shoved into Larry’s pillows.

“Just make sure he’s alright, ‘kay?” she ruffled Larry’s hair. “I don’t know what kind of nightmares he has, but it seems like this one shook him up a lot. I’ll be back in a little bit, I have to run an errand.”

“…It’s three in the morning.”

“And sometimes errands happen at three in the morning,” Lisa ruffled his hair again, then hugged him. “Just watch over him, I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay mom,” Larry hugged her back, then turned around to return to Sal and close the door in one smooth movement.

Lisa chuckled, then left the apartment, still barefoot. She padded over to the elevator and into it once it had opened. When she was inside of it, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. Larry’d had an unhappy year, one thing after another, and it made her happy to see that he was making connections like Sal. Real connections, people that were good for him.

Someone he loved.

Her son wasn’t a little kid anymore, she thought as the elevator opened on the fourth floor. As if he was waiting for her, Sal’s apartment door opened as she walked up to it, Sal’s father behind it. He looked exhausted, the bags under his eyes nearly bruises. “Lisa,” he greeted her. “Do you know where Sal is?”

“Down in my place,” she smiled at him. “I just came to get some things of his. He had a nightmare, wanted to talk to Larry about it.”

It had been quickly realized by her and established as a rule: Don’t tell Sal’s father about the boys being together. She didn’t know how he would react but she didn’t get the feeling it would be exactly the best reaction. If she had to, Lisa would go up to bat against the entire world to keep the boys safe and happy. Toe to toe, if necessary, staring down whatever Goliath would dare to touch them and their fragile happiness. Between the disappearance of her husband and the death of Sal’s mother, both boys had plenty of baggage with them.

No need to make it worse.

“Is he…Okay?”

“He’s fine,” Lisa assured him. “He just came down in such a panic that he forgot some things. I’m assuming he was asleep before he came down, so he was prepared for bed…” she let it trail off, wanting him to come to the conclusion himself.

“Oh,” he nodded slowly, like what she imagined a zombie would be like. “Come in, then. It’s okay if he spends the night?”

“Pretty much always,” she gave him a tight smile, watching the clumsy steps he took. Both of the Fisher men looked to be having bad nights and bad dreams. The older of the two had pissed her off enough the first time they’d talked that she didn’t feel too bad not expending some caring towards him. He’d gone off about his son encroaching on lives, if he was in the way just send him home again, Mrs. Johnson.

Miss, she had corrected him. I go by Miss these days.

A blank stare had followed and she had resolved never to treat him with the same welcome she gave his son.

He waved vaguely towards Sal’s room, half-asleep himself but too tired to actually go to bed. Exhaustion wore on him from every angle and she almost wanted to have Sal move into her apartment to keep it from happening to him as well. Instead, she took a deep breath and entered his bedroom. Hanging off the post at the end of the bed was the prosthetic. In a cup of water on the bedside table was his glass eye.

She picked up both and headed out again.

“You should try to get some sleep, Mister Fisher,” she called back as she left the apartment and walked down the hall to the elevator again. “It’s late.”

There wasn’t a reply, the door already closed.

The elevator door closed a second later and she braced herself against the wall again. She made sure to keep a firm grip on the cup, almost cradling it to her chest. Lisa looked down at the prosthetic, sighing as she readjusted her grip on the straps of it.

It seemed to take an eternity to reach the basement again.

Once there, Lisa padded back into her apartment, knocking on Larry’s door once more. Larry’s eyes peeked around the door, a smile on his face when he saw what she held. “He liked the chocolate,” her son said quietly. “Said it made him feel a lot better.” He reached out to take the prosthetic and the cup. “Can we get the mugs out in the morning?”

“It is morning already,” she reminded him wryly. “But yeah, I suppose they can wait until there’s sunlight and some undisturbed sleep for both of you.”

“Thanks, mom,” Larry grinned at her.

From behind him, Sal’s voice came quietly, unsteady and a little unsure. “Thank you, Miss Johnson,”

“You’re welcome Sal,” she called back, patting the top of Larry’s head once more. “Both of you keep it down, alright? I’m heading back to bed with my mug of chocolate and trying to get some more sleep.”

“Yeah,” both boys answered and something in her chest grew bigger.

She would protect her boys in any way she could.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Lisa, welcome to the party.
> 
> Anyway. Here's my take on how Lisa would handle the boys. Sal woke up from a nightmare about his mom, panicked and scared and alone, and contacted Larry through the walkie-talkies. Larry was pretty much going, "Yeah, dude, come here, I'll hold onto you until you feel better again." Sal then wandered through the building without prosthetics and arrived at the Johnson apartment in even more of a panic because of it, forgetting to answer Larry trying to talk to him. When Sal arrived, Larry was pulling his shit together to go rescue his tiny boyfriend because that is what you do when your tiny boyfriend is panicking and crying a bit and not answering.
> 
> Lisa decided to make drinking chocolate because chocolate makes most things better, no matter what.
> 
> Sal's dad isn't exactly an asshole, it's all just a bit much for him. Dude is stressed™.


End file.
